The revenue department is working on a mechanism to reduce the average period of processing and issuing income tax refunds to 10 days from 16 now. The new timeline is expected to be enforced this financial year, according to a Business Standard report.
CBDT Chairman Nitin Gupta last month also said the average time taken for issuing refunds by the income tax department has been brought down “significantly". In the year 2022-23, 80 per cent of refunds were issued in the first 30 days of filing of returns.
He said the work of processing income tax returns (ITRs) has been “expedited" as the tax department is leveraging technology in a big way and was working to ensure ‘ease of doing business’ for the taxpayers by promoting voluntary compliance.
According to the income tax department data, about 6.91 crore ITRs have been filed for the current assessment year 2023-24. Out of these, 4.82 crore ITRs have been processed.
How to Check Income Tax Refund Status
Step 1: Assessees can check the income tax refund status online through the income tax e-filing website — https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/. You will need their PAN and Aadhaar details apart from the registered mobile number to receive the OTPs.
Step 2: Once the taxpayer opens the www.incometax.gov.in portal, you will have to log in to the account using PAN details, OTP and by entering the Captcha.
Step 3: Once logged in, the taxpayer has to click on the e-file option.
Step 4: From there, one needs to go to the income tax returns tab and click on the View Filed Returns option
Step 5: The taxpayer can check the status of the latest filed ITR from there
Step 6: Click on View Details options from where you will be able to check the status of your income tax refund.
